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I can't help what I sound like. What I sound like is what i am. You know? I cannot be anything other that what I am.

Ray Charles

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Ray Charles
Age: 71 †
Born: 1932
Born: September 23
Died: 2004
Died: June 10
Composer
Jazz Musician
Music Arranger
Musician
Pianist
Recording Artist
Saxophonist
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Soul Musician
Vocalist
Albany
Georgia
Ray Charles Robinson
Raymond Charles Robinson Peter
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Sound
Helping
Cannot
Anything

More quotes by Ray Charles

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Music is nothing separate from me. It is me... You'd have to remove the music surgically.
Ray Charles
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Dreams, if they're any good, are always a little bit crazy.
Ray Charles
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The fact of the matter is, you don't give up what's natural. Anything I've fantasized about, I've done.
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Just like you can buy grades of silk, you can buy grades of justice.
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There's such a thing as too much happiness and sadness. What I'm after is contentment.
Ray Charles
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[On his heroin addiction:] I did it to myself. It wasn't society...it wasn't a pusher, it wasn't being blind or being black or being poor. It was all my doing.
Ray Charles
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When I started to sing like myself - as opposed to imitating Nat Cole, which I had done for a while - when I started singing like Ray Charles, it had this spiritual and churchy, this religious or gospel sound. It had this holiness and preachy tone to it. It was very controversial. I got a lot of criticism for it.
Ray Charles
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I'm a firm believer in God himself, but that's as far as I can go. I'm not any denomination. I'm not Catholic or Presbyterian or Baptist or Methodist or Jewish or Muslim. I'm none of those things. And I'm sure that's just fine with God.
Ray Charles
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Other arms reach out to me, Other eyes smile tenderly, Still in peaceful dreams I see, The road leads back to you.
Ray Charles
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I think that most great artists who are extremely known, as I am, would intimidate a lot of people. I don't want to do that to people, but I know I do.
Ray Charles
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I had to pawn my clothes just to pay my rent.
Ray Charles
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I heard someone say that all black people got rhythm. Bullshit.
Ray Charles
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I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water.
Ray Charles
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I just want to make my mark, leave something musically good behind.
Ray Charles
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I cant retire from music any more than I can retire from my liver. Youd have to remove the music from me surgically—like you were taking out my appendix.
Ray Charles
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Now Listen You know I work so hard, all day long Everything I try to do, Seem to always turn out wrong That's why I wanna stop by on my way home and say Let's go get stoned
Ray Charles
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Art Tatum -- he was a genius. And Einstein, not me.
Ray Charles
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What makes my approach special is that I do different things. I do jazz, blues, country music and so forth. I do them all, like a good utility man.
Ray Charles
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I was born with music inside me. That's the only explanation I know of
Ray Charles
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The important thing is to feel your music, really feel it and believe it.
Ray Charles